


Baruch Haba

by Todesengel



Series: Mag7 Bingo [9]
Category: Magnificent Seven (TV)
Genre: Character Study, Gen, Religious Content
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-12-29
Updated: 2011-12-29
Packaged: 2017-10-28 11:18:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 464
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/307328
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Todesengel/pseuds/Todesengel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In 1850, a young man's thoughts turn to God</p>
            </blockquote>





	Baruch Haba

They'd been in San Francisco for a little over a year before Josiah first noticed the Jews. They were easy to miss – a tiny congregation easily lost amidst this swirling throng of California's new settlers – and although Josiah chided himself for being so unobservant, he did not do so with any particular severity. He had seen Jews before, of course, in New York and Boston, was already inured to these strange men with the small black skullcaps and the fringes that dangled from their shirts; they were familiar aliens, and their strangeness paled in comparison to the Chinese of his father's ministry. Still, he made a passing note of their presence and where they met and made a secret promise to himself to seek them out at some later date, to plumb the depths of their as-yet-unknown mysteries.

Still, it was another six months before he remembered the Jews, and perhaps he would not have thought of them at all had he not passed by the small general store and heard the sounds of worship coming from the back. It was a strange and oddly melancholy sound, so different from the services he knew – not just those of his father, who preached hellfire and damnation, but of the Cherokee, and the Navajo, and the Sioux. The lilting singing rooted him to the spot, and he listened, entranced, as the Jews prayed their strange, guttural prayers and sang their mournful hymns.

He was surprised to find tears on his cheeks when the meeting ended, and he hurried away from the store as fast as he could, embarrassed to be caught skulking in the lengthening shadows.

But he could not stay away for long, and the next day he returned well before the sunset hour. There was a little bell above the door, and it jangled sweetly as he entered.

"Shalom," Josiah said to the man behind the counter, proud that he remembered this word, remembered that it was how the Jews in Boston had greeted each other on the streets. The shopkeeper stared intently at him, then asked him something in a sharp, harsh tongue.

"Uh." Josiah felt his face fall, as the folly of his plan revealed itself to him. Still, had not Job persevered against a sea of troubles and found great riches in the end? "My name's Josiah," he said. "Josiah Sanchez."

"Two blocks down," the Jew told him, his voice heavily accented. "We sell no bacon here."

"I know," Josiah said. "I, uh. I heard the prayers last night. I was wondering if I could talk to you."

"About?" The Jew was eyeing him suspiciously now, and Josiah knew he had only a few minutes before the shouting – if not the shooting – began.

He opened his arms wide and smiled. "God"

**Author's Note:**

>  _Baruch haba_ is (according to the Internets) Hebrew for "blessed be he who comes" and is said during the bris when the baby is carried into the room.


End file.
